Update, if anyone is still interested. My wife will be joining the church as an official member and I'll be tagging along to services. She talked to one of the pastors and there are others in the same situation and they don't mind. No high-pressure sales tactics or anything so far. They've all been very welcoming and friendly.

_________________Official Sponsor of Ray Barile[Dooger] 9:10 am: That David [Backes] is a cool dude.RIP Pavol Demitra - I hope you are "so hoppy" wherever you are now

Update, if anyone is still interested. My wife will be joining the church as an official member and I'll be tagging along to services. She talked to one of the pastors and there are others in the same situation and they don't mind. No high-pressure sales tactics or anything so far. They've all been very welcoming and friendly.

I hope it's one of those snake handling churches or maybe one that sarcifices goats. At least it won't be boring.

Just kidding. I think that's cool. It's not bad being part of a group like that even if you don't share their beliefs. For some people, such as this pastor, it's enough to let you know that the door is open in case you change your mind. But don't be surprised if others try to convert you.

Update, if anyone is still interested. My wife will be joining the church as an official member and I'll be tagging along to services. She talked to one of the pastors and there are others in the same situation and they don't mind. No high-pressure sales tactics or anything so far. They've all been very welcoming and friendly.

You tell your wife to go to church and pray for you, you baptize your kid as a C.Y.A. (just incase daddy is wrong), and don't worry about it until you get locust plagues or snakes or something.

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." ~ Galileo

"I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of God. I have seen too much religion in the eyes of too many murderers. Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves"~Kingdom of Heaven

Personally I think all of those that don't succumb to the will of Muhammed will feel Allah's vengance.

Excellent use of sarcasm MEG!!!111!!You already state that your an atheist.

R/S

KJVO_1611

Muslim, atheist, mormon.. What's the difference? They're all heathens that will burn in hell for being different.

Hell can't be that bad. Everyone I know will probably be there.

_________________2014-2015 Official LGB Sponsor of T.J. Oshie2013-2014 Official LGB Sponsor of Kevin Shattenkirk2012-2013 Official LGB Sponsor of Ryan Reaves2011-2012 Official LGB Sponsor of Vladimir Tarasenko2010-2011 Official LGB Sponsor of Vladimir Tarasenko

We're still going to the same church. Sent our kids to the preschool there. I'm still not an official "member" but tag along most every Sunday. My in-laws moved out here and go to the church now too. We've met some good people with kids around the age of our kids too, so that's been cool for playdates and stuff.

_________________Official Sponsor of Ray Barile[Dooger] 9:10 am: That David [Backes] is a cool dude.RIP Pavol Demitra - I hope you are "so hoppy" wherever you are now

We ended up baptizing both of our kids UCC...mainly because it was important to our parents.I think that's a stupid reason to baptize kids...but whatever. I didn't want to rock the boat. Her parents are great folks and they do a lot for us. I still feel like it was wrong for us to do because it goes against what we feel, but whatever...I gave in on this matter. We'll let our kids make their own educated choices about religion. The fact that they were baptized, really means nothing to us... so it's not like they are now bound to the UCC church or anything. It's just symbolic senseless fluff as far as I am concerned...and it made the family happy...so whatever. If you were to tell me that it was wrong of me to do that, I'm not going to argue with you.

Before the baptism, we attended the local UCC church a handful of times with our daughter...who was less than a year old. I guess it was just something we felt like we had to do before asking about getting our daughter baptized.

We had to meet with the pastor before he would agree to baptize our daughter. During the meeting (and I knew this was coming), he asked if I believed in God. And I said no...it just isn't believable to me. Could a God exist? I suppose anything is possible, but I'm not going to live my life and give a lot of money to some organization based on that kind of "what if?" thinking. I could have lied just to get through the meeting, but it would have bothered me. I'm glad I said what I said to him...if actually felt good.

He agreed to do the baptism...even though I was a heathen. (money talks I guess...which is part of the problem with religion)He probably agreed because during our meeting my wife said she believed in God...which she does. She is a christian and believes that a God created the universe and Jesus was the son of God, but she isn't on board with most organized religions. (But she enjoys the Cosmos series...which is odd)

During my daughter's baptism, they did the baptism right away, which took 15 minutes or so...then, they spent the next 45 minutes talking about money and how the church needs more money for this and that. There was no sermon, there was no lesson...just a long powerpoint presentation.Both sides of our family were there...which made up over half of the congregation. And they had to sit through this stupid presentation.

We were pissed...oh boy were we pissed. The baptism was scheduled more than a month in advance...and they decided to do that crap the same Sunday? It's like they didn't give a damn whatsoever about our families in attendance...they don't go to that church...they are guests there and don't care about that stuff. Now, something that I didn't care about whatsoever, was all of a sudden very important to me. I felt like my daughter, my wife and I, and our family, didn't get the respect we deserved on the day of my daughter's baptism. Our family that came had to sit through something that should have been saved for an "after service" thing that folks could stay for if they wanted.We wrote a nasty letter to the pastor, and we never went back.

I can't stand organized religion. I didn't like it before we had my daughter baptized, and what happened on that Sunday just confirmed my stance. Sure, it's nice for get together's and community things, and you can make friends, and there are lots of good people involved with churches, which is great...but the religious teachings part of it just seems like such an obvious scam.

We had my son baptized a couple years later, but we did it in a neutral setting that is open to all religions and my sister in law's father did the ceremony...he happens to be a pastor, and he also married my wife and I. That went much better...but I was still against doing it in the first place...but we baptized my daughter, so why not do it again...I guess.

I'd say you have every right to be upset at that Curt. The way certain churches do things really irks me. I've mentioned already in this thread that I pretty much go for my wife and child. I try to get something out of it but I just can't jump, both feet in, on something that requires 100% faith.

However, I don't mind going if I'm just left alone to take what I want away from it and that's that. Recently, my wife and I had discussed going to a different church. Currently, we go to the one she grew up in. Sorry if I've said some of this before, I'm too lazy to go back and look.

Well, we got a new pastor last June and we thought we'd see how it goes. The church we go to is mostly older people, older style music, just...old. Doesn't appeal to us 20-somethings. So this new pastor comes in, we're giving him a chance, he's changing some things. But he's the type of guy that's very pushy. Not in a traditional way, but more like, 'I'm going to get to know you in any way possible.'

Yesterday after church he comes up to me and says, 'Hey, do you like food (dumb question)? Do you want to get together for some food and just to, you know, talk?' Real answer: no. My answer: yeah, that would be fine. I don't know what he wants to talk to me about. But this is the exact opposite of just leaving me alone. Am I wrong to be dreading this? I just go from quiet to really defensive and angry when someone tries to steer their way in to try to win me over. And I'm going to tell him that if that's the purpose of this get together. I just feel like he has an ulterior motive. He wants to hang out just so he can win me over. At least that's how it is in my mind.

So my goal is to be completely passive aggressive about this and avoid him for as long as possible.

Yesterday after church he comes up to me and says, 'Hey, do you like food (dumb question)? Do you want to get together for some food and just to, you know, talk?' Real answer: no. My answer: yeah, that would be fine. I don't know what he wants to talk to me about. But this is the exact opposite of just leaving me alone. Am I wrong to be dreading this? I just go from quiet to really defensive and angry when someone tries to steer their way in to try to win me over. And I'm going to tell him that if that's the purpose of this get together. I just feel like he has an ulterior motive. He wants to hang out just so he can win me over. At least that's how it is in my mind.

So my goal is to be completely passive aggressive about this and avoid him for as long as possible.

Sorry, had to vent a little.

That's just weird. Obviously there is an ulterior motive of some sort.I wouldn't dread it though. I would just be honest about whatever he wants to know...hell, I would probably consider it a good opportunity...like I said above, it oddly felt good to tell the pastor that I didn't really believe in a God, and why.Those are fun converstations for me, because someone who is trying to convince you of something, who has no facts and just faith...really can't debate very long.It wouldn't be very Christian to lie you know.

Yesterday after church he comes up to me and says, 'Hey, do you like food (dumb question)? Do you want to get together for some food and just to, you know, talk?' Real answer: no. My answer: yeah, that would be fine. I don't know what he wants to talk to me about. But this is the exact opposite of just leaving me alone. Am I wrong to be dreading this? I just go from quiet to really defensive and angry when someone tries to steer their way in to try to win me over. And I'm going to tell him that if that's the purpose of this get together. I just feel like he has an ulterior motive. He wants to hang out just so he can win me over. At least that's how it is in my mind.

So my goal is to be completely passive aggressive about this and avoid him for as long as possible.

Sorry, had to vent a little.

That's just weird. Obviously there is an ulterior motive of some sort.I wouldn't dread it though. I would just be honest about whatever he wants to know...hell, I would probably consider it a good opportunity...like I said above, it oddly felt good to tell the pastor that I didn't really believe in a God, and why.Those are fun converstations for me, because someone who is trying to convince you of something, who has no facts and just faith...really can't debate very long.It wouldn't be very Christian to lie you know.

Haha..you bring up some good points. I used to love these type of conversations when I was a full blown Atheist because I wanted to prove them wrong. But in the case of religion, no one knows who is right or wrong, it just boils down to the unknown and whether you believe something or not. I'm okay letting him think that way, but my issue is I want to be left alone just to come up with my own thoughts. He can't prove he's right, but I can't prove he's wrong either. And I'm fine conceding that.

But like you said, being honest about whatever he wants to know is the right way to go, just because he might realize I'm not someone that needs to be 'won' over. If I want to come over (not saying I do), then I'll come over on my own and ask you for help. But until then...leave me alone. And I'll tell him as such.

Still...I'm going to try to avoid him as much as possible to delay this thing for a good while.

Taking it back a few weeks, I was kind of purposely trying to avoid Preach (as I'll call the preacher) so we didn't schedule anything. He caught me and had an awkward conversation with me trying to schedule a time. His first suggestion was last Thursday, which I told him was a no-go since, you know, Game 1. We never set a time but he told me he was going to try to get with me about it.

Immediately after this conversation, my wife comes up and whispers to me, "We need to talk about him (Preach). I've got some news about him."

So we get out to the car and she tells me that a majority of the people in the church are unhappy with him, they don't like how he's running things, and they're having a church board meeting with the Pastor and the leader of the church's conference that Tuesday.

So the meeting comes and goes, he apparently said he felt like he 'let the church down,' 'disobeyed their trust,' etc.

He apparently visited my in laws (who are on the church board) and was apologizing to them, saying the same things, just directly to them. While at their house, he looked up at a picture of my wife and I and says, 'You've got a great daughter and son-in-law there.' He made mention of me in some capacity, like about how I wasn't a Christian, or whatever. Almost as if he thought my in laws didn't know. My mother in law corrected him, "Oh, I know his story."

So then he starts telling her. "I reached out to him to maybe try to hang out some time. I feel like I've made a connection there."

He rattled on and my mother in law corrected him, "Well, if there is one thing I know about my son in law, it's that he needs his space (Go her!)."

What made her a little worried is that he was so oblivious to how he was pushing me away, that he felt like he was making a connection with me. And I agree with her, it's always been my problem with him. He doesn't know how to read a room.

Cut to today, get a text from my wife: "Mom just got a letter. Pastor is leaving the church."

So from two weeks ago, it goes from him badgering me to him leaving the church. This is a guy who uprooted his family from Pennsylvania to move to our podunk town in So. Ill. less than a year ago. I feel bad for him, but at the same time, I'm sort of happy that he's not going to be around to bug me like this any more. Just a weird story.

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